Space station may be site for next mock Mars mission

A 17-month mock mission to Mars on Earth could be followed up by a shorter simulation in low-Earth orbit, Russian space officials say.

Today, a six-man, four-nation crew emerged one by one after 520 days in a sealed habitat in Moscow meant to simulate a mission to Mars - the longest isolation experiment ever achieved.

The Mars 500 "astronauts" smiled and waved as they greeted a sea of faces, glimpsed their first daylight and breathed their first fresh air in almost a year and a half. As they lined up for photos and brief remarks, Diego Urbina, the Italian participant, pummelled his fists in the air in a classic victory gesture as if to say, "Yes! We did it!"

Even the normally stoic Russian commander, Aleksey Sitev (pictured), grinned from ear to ear as he stepped out of the capsule, bringing up the rear, and waved to the guests present.

"We are proud today to prove that humans can go to Mars," said Romain
Charles, the French participant. His smile grew wider and wider as he
gazed at all the people around him. Urbina called his five colleagues
"the most professional, friendly and resilient individuals I have ever
worked with". Wang Yue, of China, greeted the audience in English,
Chinese and Russian.

Sergey Krasnov, the head of human space flight programmes for
Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, told guests and press that the next
step will be to carry out a "shorter version" of Mars 500 on the
International Space Station.

He admitted to the difficulty of recreating absolute isolation on the
station, but suggested that a simulation of other Mars 500 elements,
such as a Mars-like communications delay between crew and ground
control, would be useful in laying the groundwork for space travel
beyond low-Earth orbit. The experiment would be carried out in
microgravity, with greater potential danger and no ability to walk out
at any time, so it would be a more realistic simulation of a Mars
mission. An ISS experiment would most likely take place two to three
years from now, he said. As for the date of a real mission to Mars,
Krasnov could not be specific.

A few minutes before the crew's exit, they were visible via video,
pacing in their confined quarters. Then a technician on the outside
dramatically unwound the simple brown string that was sealed across the
door 520 days ago and opened the hatch to let the crew out.

In response to questions about bets being placed on which of the crew
would walk out of the experiment before it was finished, Urbina told
the news agency Russia Today that he and the other crew members were
happy that someone would make money on the wager "that none of us would
go crazy or go out early".

The men will now spend four days in quarantine for medical tests
before they begin to reintegrate into their normal lives. In April, the
results from more than 100 medical and scientific experiments performed
during the mission will be presented at a conference in Moscow.

If you are going to go for a mission simulation in space, why not go for the ful duration, that way you can test out th technology close by to reduce the effects of low gravity, and if you mess up, you can get them back easily instead of waiting for them to go all the way out and back, only to discover that at best, they would be permanent residents of the ISS on their return?

Michael Dowling
on November 6, 2011 3:10 PM

I think this whole exercise is a waste of time,as a real 17 month Mars mission would expose the crew to a lethal dose of radiation. A better way would involve the use of ion rocket technology which could cut travel time to a month or so.